Rowing: British crews struggle in World Championship semi-finals

Britain has five junior crews but just one senior crew in finals at this
weekend's World Championships, after difficult semi-finals yesterday in Linz.

By Rachel Quarrell

11:46PM BST 25 Jul 2008

The men's coxless four, the best hope of a junior gold, were locked into a battle against Germany right down the course, and only edged by them on the line, while still qualifying for the final.

But both were slower than Australia, and with the other semi-final just as close, anything could happen in the medal race tomorrow afternoon.

Junior double Olivia Oakes and Rachel Gamble-Flint were in the row of their lives for the semi-final, third nearly all the way but never more than a few feet from dangerous fourth.

They managed to hold onto third as the Czech Republic and Bulgaria took turns to push, and then began a sustained sprint to the finish, fighting every stroke in one of the closest races of the day. Their reward was a place in the final, by 0.04 seconds - a few inches - over the Czechs.

The other two junior fours and the junior eight had already qualified for the finals, as have the senior lightweight women's quad, which races on Sunday.

Unfortunately the British lightweight men's quad were excluded yesterday, after failing to bring their boat to be weighed in after racing the day before.

However, they had already finished last in the seven-boat event, so were not going to the final.